


Let me off - the world is spinning too fast - EXCERPT

by KByrd



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Au where Loki is maybe not as evil, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 02:59:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5895526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KByrd/pseuds/KByrd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU what-if type of story where Loki may be just a little misunderstood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let me off - the world is spinning too fast - EXCERPT

**Author's Note:**

> Loki was meant to die at the end of Thor (by falling into the void), but his character was so popular with audiences that Marvel brought him back for the Avengers and Thor 2.
> 
> Frankly I’m always torn over Loki – he’s such a fascinating mix of angst and cleverness and snark that he’s delightful to watch. BUT I can’t forget that he’s also a pretty terrible guy in Avengers – pointlessly, carelessly violent and cruel. I can never REALLY enjoy those stories where Darcy simply falls in love with the Asgardian bad boy and conveniently forgets (or forgives) what he’s done because he’s just so hot.
> 
> I prefer those stories (like the amazing Bargaining) where the story is re-imagined as a what-if this didn’t happen … or even though it did happen, how could he repair the damage?
> 
> So here’s my attempt at a what-if story involving Loki and Darcy. It may be a bit clichéd in places – I’m still working out the kinks, but let me know what you think.
> 
> And fair warning – I’m not keen on happy endings.

Darcy has learned enough about the bond between Loki and Thor that she suspects that Loki will know where to waylay Thor.

The Asgardian palace is a maze of corridors and dead-ends and barred doors so she doesn’t generally wander around without a guide. But in this case, she has a pretty good idea where Loki might be.

Still, she counts herself lucky when she catches a glimpse of a dark cape swooshing around a corner. She jogs after the wraith.

“Loki,” she hisses urgently.

A hand grabs her upper arm and hauls her roughly into an alcove.

“Oof!”

Loki pins her against the wall. “What are you doing here?” he snarls.

“Looking for you,” she gasps.

He scowls, “why?”

“To hear what Thor tells you.”

She lifts her chin defiantly trying not to be cowed by him, but it's not easy. The alcove is a tight fit and Loki looms over her.

“Shush,” he tells her, suddenly lifting his head and looking intently down the hallway.

In seconds, she can hear the rat-a-tat of boots clicking briskly along the stone wall. Thor comes into sight, his red cape billowing and Loki steps out in front of him.

“By the Norns!” Thor swears, gripping his hammer defensively as he comes to a halt. The two guards behind him lift their swords warily.

Loki glares at them; Thor waves a hand to tell them to stand down.

“Brother,” Loki says bluntly. “What did they say?”

Thor scowls, then he waves his guards away. “Leave us,” he says imperiously. “This is a private conversation.”

The guards don't look happy, but they nod and return the way they had come.

Darcy waits until she can't hear the footsteps of the guards and then she claps her hands. “Out with it!” she demands breathlessly. “Are you king or not?”

“Regent,” Thor answers tersely. “The council agrees that the All-Father is not well – has not been himself for some time now – and so I will act as king and they will review my decisions.”

“Better and better,” Darcy says in delight. “Constitutional monarchy ... that's a first step towards democracy.”

“No-body in Asgard wants democracy,” Loki snaps.

“Bet some people do,” Darcy retorts.

Loki opens his mouth to make some kind of cutting remark, but Thor steps in. “Enough!” he says firmly. “I've agreed to their restrictions. For now.”

“What about the agreement?” Loki asks.

“It's complicated,” Thor says, looking shifty.

“Which part?”

“We didn't go through it in detail. We got sidetracked ...”

“About Loki?” Darcy guesses.

Thor nods.

Loki waves their concerns away. “I've never cared for their opinions anyway.”

“In this case, their opinion matters,” Thor growls. “There are some on the council who are not disposed to honour the agreement.”

“But they have to,” Loki insists fiercely. “The Jötnar honoured their part of the deal.”

“There are some who say we are giving into blackmail,” Thor explains.

“It was an honest negotiation!” Loki exclaims.

“A few people are concerned that you had no right ...”

“Of course it was my right!” Loki snarls. “I am a prince of Asgard!”

Thor sighs and rubs his beard. “Of course,” he says carefully. “But some of the nobles ...”

Loki is looking more and more agitated. “You explained, didn't you?” he demands.

“Yes of course ...”

“They don't believe you?”

“This is why it got complicated,” Thor says firmly. “Some say I am too much in your thrall ... that I would say or do anything for you ...”

“That’s bullshit!” Loki swears, his eyes blazing; Thor glares fiercely back.

Darcy steps in. She has brothers herself and is used to fraternal squabbling, but these two can wind each other up like no pair she's ever seen. “Focus!” she commands. “What about the casket?”

Thor winces.

“That's non-negotiable,” Loki warns his brother.

Thor looks uneasy.

“Thor ...” Loki says warily, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

Thor shrugs. “I judged it not wise to bring it up in today's meeting,” he admits. “Tempers were running high ... and if I am honest, emotions were strongly against acknowledging the agreement.”

“The Jötnar queen has already contacted me asking when I will return the casket,” Loki says tightly, his eyes blazing.

“You'll have to put her off,” Thor insists.

“That's a no-go,” Darcy butts in. “It was the first item on the wish list.”

Thor shakes his head. “It’s going to be a tough one to convince the council.”

“Fuck them,” Loki snaps. “A deal’s a deal and the casket means a whole bunch more to the Jötnar than it does to Asgard. Why the hell should they care whether it’s rotting away in the vaults?”

Thor scowls. “They?”

“You know what I mean,” Loki says sharply. “The council.”

“The Jötnar need it,” Darcy reminds Thor. “It’s the source of their power. Without the casket their kingdom can’t flourish. Can’t recover from the wars.”

“That’s the sort of detail I’m NOT going to emphasize,” Thor says grimly.

Loki shakes his head in frustration.

Thor touches him lightly on the shoulder. “Be patient, my brother.”

Loki brushes the hand away roughly.

Darcy grabs the front of Loki’s robes and drags him back into the alcove. “Stay back!” she warns Thor who scowls at her but stays in the hallway.

Loki makes a face but doesn’t resist her manhandling.

“I have an idea,” she says urgently.

“Pretty sure I know what you’re thinking,” he whispers back.

“The Dumbledore principle?” she says seriously.

“What?”

“You know,” she lowers her voice. “Ask forgiveness rather than permission?”

Loki looks at her as if she has two heads.

Darcy groans. “So we go to the …”

Loki clamps his hand over her mouth. “Yes,” he says slowly and clearly, “but we will not speak of this.”

She pulls away and nods.

Thor, still in the hallway, bangs his hammer against the wall. “I know what you’re talking about,” he calls out.

They re-emerge, trying not to look guilty.

“So Thor,” Darcy says artlessly, “we can’t do much about this right now, but Jane is probably worried sick about you. How about you go find her and give her the big news?”

Thor glares. “I know what you plan on doing,” he says grimly.

“Let’s pretend you don’t,” she answers brightly. “That way, if the council asks, you can say you had NO idea. It’s called ‘plausible deniability’.”

“Won’t work,” Thor growls.

Loki groans. “Thor, just let it go.”

Thor shakes his head stubbornly.

“It’s a time-honoured practice,” Darcy insists. “Politicians do it all the time.”

“I know what plausible deniability is!” Thor snaps louder than Darcy expects.

She flinches.

He looks abashed. “Sorry,” he says in a quieter voice. “But you’re not the only one trained in political strategies.”

“Trained up to be king,” Loki stage whispers to Darcy. “I keep forgetting, but then he reminds me. Every. Other. Day.”

Thor glares. “It won’t work,” he explains. “Half the council will say that this only proves that you are an irredeemable, incorrigible thief as they had expected all along; the other half of the council will assume I knew all along and will blame me for not being able to keep you in check …”

Loki opens his mouth as if to interrupt, but Thor barges on.

“I have a better idea,” he announces. “Come with me.”

He strides off and Loki steps up beside him. Darcy scrambles to keep up as both men are tall and long-legged and walk swiftly.

“Where …?” she tries to ask, but her words are lost.

The castle is a maze but Thor and Loki forge ahead unerringly.

“This must have been a fun place to play hide and seek, huh?” Darcy pants as she jogs in their wake.

Thor pauses. “It may be best if you return to Jane,” he suggests. “Can you find your way back?”

“No way!” Darcy retorts. “I have to go.”

“You don’t,” Thor counters. “It may be dangerous.”

“I have to!” Darcy insists. “Loki tell him!”

Loki makes a face. “Actually, it’s best if she comes,” he admits to Thor. “There are certain cultural implications ….”

Thor scowls. “It’s no place for a Migardian,” he argues half-heartedly.

Darcy pulls out a blue, glass-like disk hung around her neck on a black leather thong. “I’m not going as me, exactly,” she explains. “But in disguise.”

Loki slaps her hand away from the medallion. “Quit fiddling with that. We’re supposed to be inconspicuous so you can’t go gallivanting around in the guise of a giant blue monster.”

Thor’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline.

Darcy pouts and tucks the cool disk back into her shirt.

“Okaay then,” Thor nods and continues the trek through the castle.

They wind through stone corridors, past arches leading into impressive receiving rooms, down jagged steps, past servants scurrying around, through heavy doors. Neither man hesitates.

Finally they reach an enormous steel door barred and locked and guarded by two soldiers.

“Stand down,” Thor orders the men imperiously. “We have business in the vaults.”

The guards look at each other uneasily, but step aside. One has a key which he inserts into a keyhole the size of a giant’s hand.

“Thank you,” Thor says as they step through the door; Loki nods majestically and Darcy gives them a little wave as she slips through the enormous door and follows Loki down the steps.

Several more doors, several more sets of guards, many steps up and many more down and then they are standing at the top of a long sweep of steps leading into a circular display room. All three pause at the top. In the middle of the floor at the bottom of the stairs is a kind of pedestal topped with a glowing, humming rectangular case.

Darcy gasps for breath.

Loki looks grim. And intensely focused on the casket.

Thor lays his palm on a glass panel and the door closes behind them with a hiss and a thud. The noise seems to startle Loki out of his trance.

“You can go now,” he says gruffly.

“I’ll tell the council that since the Jötnar fulfilled their part of the bargain, I sent you to deliver the casket as a goodwill gesture while we debate the finer points of the agreement,” Thor says.

Loki nods, his eyes still fixed on the casket.

“That way, you’re not stealing it. You’re there on my command.”

They walk down the long sweep of stairs to the casket. Even to Darcy, it seems to shimmer. There is a faint sound almost like classical music in the air and she has a firm desire to reach out and touch …

Loki grabs her hand before she’s done more than twitch. “Not in your current form,” he warns her.

“Right,” she nods, reaching for the pendant.

She flips the inner disk and it spins on its mini axel like a whirling blue time-turner. Darcy closes her eyes and concentrates on breathing. Her muscles stretch, her bones ache for a moment; then she opens her eyes and looks around.

She grins.

Thor frowns and grips his hammer tightly. He looks UP at her, his eyes wide and wary, his expression grim.

She’s about 7 feet tall, her skin is blue, marked with concentric patterns raised like scars. The casket is suddenly thrown into sharp focus to her eyes, but the rest of the room appears fuzzy, blurred out.

“You can go now,” Loki says to Thor, tearing his eyes away from the casket for a moment. “We can take it from here.”

“I’ll see you off,” Thor insists.

“No need.” Loki argues, frowning.

“I’ll be fine,” Thor presses.

“I’d rather you didn’t …”

Darcy butts in, “Loki doesn’t want you to see him in his Johtun form,” she tells Thor bluntly.

From the flash of emotion in Loki’s eyes, she can see she’s hit a nerve.

Thor nods. “I know,” he says. “But I think I should be here.”

Loki looks furious. “Why?” he snarls. “So you can …?”

“What do you think I’m going to do?” Thor snaps back. “Tease you?”

Darcy can see the muscles in Loki’s jaw as he grinds his teeth.

There’s a pregnant moment when all three appear frozen in time and then Loki reaches out to grasp the casket with both hands.

Darcy averts her eyes and focuses on Thor as he watches Loki’s transformation.

She can see him tighten his grip on his hammer and then deliberately relax. He lifts his chin to look UP at his little brother.

“You still look like you,” Thor says.

Loki snorts. He shifts the casket in his arms. “Time to go,” he says shortly, holding out one hand for Darcy.

“Brother …” Thor says softly.

Loki glares, his red eyes making him look dangerously defiant.

“You are still my brother no matter what you look like,” Thor insists. He steps forward as if to embrace Loki and Loki steps back in alarm.

“You idiot!” he says harshly. “Your skin will freeze!”

“Right,” Thor nods, pausing. “I forgot. Well … anyways … good travels. I … um.”

“See ya,” Darcy says cheerfully, taking Loki’s outstretched hand.

“Bye,” Thor says.


End file.
